[extropy-chat] The Nanogirl News~

Wed Aug 2 22:26:40 UTC 2006

Nanogirl News
August 2, 2006

Carbon nanotubes offer 'green' technology for perchlorate removal. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have demonstrated a new, environmentally friendly process for treating water contaminated by perchlorate, a toxic chemical that has been found in drinking water in 35 states. 
(Physorg 7.25.06) http://www.physorg.com/news73064933.html

Living with Nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are stronger than steel and 50,000 times finer than human hair. Unfortunately they kill cells, which discourages researchers who'd like to use them to diagnose and treat disease. Now scientists have created a mimic of natural mucin that can make carbon nanotubes safe for living things. (Berkeley Lab 7.26.06) http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2006/Jul/01.html

Nano World: Nanofibers for heart cells. The heart function of rats following heart attacks can be improved using heart cells wrapped in organic fibers only nanometers or billionths of a meter long that are impregnated with growth hormones, experts tell UPI's Nano World. (Physorg 5.12.06)
http://www.physorg.com/news66654477.html

Nanotechnology being used to improve biocompatibility of human prosthetics and implants. As populations of the world age the current trend is that people are not slowing down in their later years. The desire for increased activity among the elderly also means increased demands on medical researchers to come up with better ways to keep them active. (A2Z 8.2.06) http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=6210 

Gold nanoparticles could improve antisense cancer drugs. In the fight against cancer, antisense drugs, which prevent genes from producing harmful proteins such as those that cause cancer, have the promise to be more effective than conventional drugs, but the pace of development of these new drugs has been slow. Using gold nanoparticles combined with DNA, scientists at Northwestern University now have demonstrated a new method for developing antisense drugs that outperform conventional antisense agents. The findings will be published May 19 in the journal Science. (EurekAlert 5.18.06)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/nu-gnc051606.php

CMU professor says nanotechnology study may lead to tinier computers. Ever had the urge to slip your 500-gigabyte desktop computer into your back pocket? Koblar Alan Jackson is making no promises, but the Central Michigan University professor's research in nanophotonics may help lay the groundwork for future generations of computer downsizing. Think technology that one day could make the iPod's microcircuits resemble the oversize vacuum tubes in your grandfather's TV. (CMU 8.2.06)
http://www.news.cmich.edu/news/index.asp?id=1448

World's tiniest test tubes get teensiest corks. Now all they need is a really, really small corkscrew. Like Lilliputian chemists, scientists have found a way to "cork" infinitesimally small nano test tubes. The goal is a better way to deliver drugs, for example, for cancer treatment. Scientists want to fill the teeny tubes with drugs and inject them into the body, where they will seek diseased or cancerous cells, uncork and spill their therapeutic contents in the right place. 
(nanotechwire 5.10.06) http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=3291

Sandia work launched on space shuttle shows live cells influence growth of nanostructures. Implications for sensors, tuberculosis modeling, cell preparation, surgical implant safety. Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures. The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, NASA and US Air Force) to test whether nanostructures whose formations were directed by yeast and other single cells can create more secure homes for their occupants-even in the vacuum and radiation of outer space-than those created by more standard chemical procedures. (Brightsurf 7.24.06) http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/25502/Sandia_work_launched_on_space_shuttle_shows_live_cells_influence_growth_of_nanostructures.html

Vertically Oriented Nanoelectronics. Engineers at Purdue University have developed a technique to grow individual carbon nanotubes vertically on top of a silicon wafer, a step toward making advanced electronics, wireless devices and sensors using nanotubes by stacking circuits and components in layers. The technique might help develop a method for creating "vertically oriented" nanoelectronic devices, the electronic equivalent of a skyscraper, said Timothy S. Fisher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the work with Timothy D. Sands, the Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering. (Technologynewsdaily Aug. 06)
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/3959

Blood-compatible nanoscale materials possible using heparin. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have engineered nanoscale materials that are blood compatible using heparin, an anticoagulant. The heparin biomaterials have potential for use as medical devices and in medical treatments such as kidney dialysis. (Rensselaer 5.4.06) http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1523&setappvar=page(1)

Reflections of an Atom. Physicists have developed lenses and prisms to manipulate beams of atoms and molecules as though they were beams of light. Now, in the 21 July PRL, a team reports on their design and testing of an atomic mirror. Before reflection, the system must put the atoms into a highly excited state. Almost any atom or molecule can be excited into one of these states, so the mirror along with other components could lead to new experiments on the wave nature of atoms, as well as improved devices like gyroscopes or atomic clocks, researchers say. (PRL 8.1.06) http://focus.aps.org/story/v18/st3

Rice scientists attach motor to single-molecule car. In follow-on work to last year's groundbreaking invention of the world's first single-molecule car, chemists at Rice University have produced the first motorized version of their tiny nanocar. The research is published in the April 13 issue of the journal Organic Letters. (EurekAlert 4.12.06) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/ru-rsa041206.php

Nanodogs could sniff out explosives in terror battle. Welsh scientists have developed a sensor they call a nanodog which is capable of 'sniffing' out microscopic low levels of explosives. It is hoped the technology will be used in the fight against terrorism, with airports and governments already showing an interest. The nanodog was developed by a team from the University of Wales, Bangor's school of chemistry, led by Professor Maher Kalaji.  (Small Times 7.28.06)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=11931

Nanogenerators Convert Mechanical Energy To Electricity For Self-powered Devices. Researchers have developed a new technique for powering nanometer-scale devices without the need for bulky energy sources such as batteries. By converting mechanical energy from body movement, muscle stretching or water flow into electricity, these "nanogenerators" could make possible a new class of self-powered implantable medical devices, sensors and portable electronics. 
(ScienceDaily 4.16.06) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060414011916.htm

Carbon nanotubes enter Tour de France. If Floyd Landis wins the three-week Tour de France, it will be a victory for nanotechnology too. Landis, the leader of the Phonak team and one of the pre-race favorites, rides a bike that's been enhanced with carbon nanotubes. Although nanotubes have previously been sprinkled into cranks and other components to reduce weight and provide additional strength, the bikes ridden by the Phonak team have nanotubes swirled into the frame--a first, according to their Swiss manufacturer, BMC. (Cnet 7.7.06) http://news.com.com/Carbon+nanotubes+enter+Tour+de+France/2100-11395_3-6091347.html

Nanotube membranes offer possibility of cheaper desalination. A nanotube membrane on a silicon chip the size of a quarter may offer a cheaper way to remove salt from water. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a membrane made of carbon nanotubes and silicon that may offer, among many possible applications, a less expensive desalinization. The nanotubes, special molecules made of carbon atoms in a unique arrangement, are hollow and more than 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Billions of these tubes act as the pores in the membrane. (LLNL 5.18.06)
http://www.llnl.gov/pao/news/news_releases/2006/NR-06-05-06.html

World's Smallest Bit of Nylon. A US scientist has made the world's smallest fragment of nylon and hopes to make more by harnessing the self-assembling properties of DNA, ABC wrote. Professor Nadrian Seeman of New York University says the long-term plan is to make ultra strong nylon. "The same properties of DNA that make it such a wonderful genetic material can be utilized in other ways," says Seeman, a pioneer of what is called structural DNA nanotechnology. (Irandaily 8.2.06) http://www.iran-daily.com/1385/2627/html/science.htm#s163947

Just one nanosecond: Clocking events at the nanoscale. As scientists and engineers build devices at smaller and smaller scales, grasping the dynamics of how materials behave when they are subjected to electrical signals, sound and other manipulations has proven to be beyond the reach of standard scientific techniques. But now a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has found a way to time such effects at the nanometer scale, in essence clocking the movements of atoms as they are manipulated using electric fields. (U of Wisconsin - Madison 5.18.06) http://www.news.wisc.edu/12614.html

Scientists Image 'Magnetic Semiconductors' On The Nanoscale. In a first-of-its-kind achievement, scientists at the University of Iowa, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Princeton University have directly imaged the magnetic interactions between two magnetic atoms less than one nanometer apart (one billionth of a meter) and embedded in a semiconductor chip. (Science Daily 7.26.06) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060726180353.htm

Add Nanotubes and Stir-With the Right Force. Polymer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have some stirring results to share with researchers and companies developing new, advanced composite materials with carbon nanotubes-mix carefully. In a paper for Physical Review Letters,* they explain how the amount of force applied while mixing carbon nanotube suspensions influences the way the tiny cylinders ultimately disperse and orient themselves. 
(nanotechwire.com 7.23.06) http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=3524

Nano Probe May Open New Window Into Cell Behavior. Georgia Tech invention captures cell properties and biochemical signals in action. Georgia Tech researchers have created a nanoscale probe, the Scanning Mass Spectrometry (SMS) probe, that can capture both the biochemical makeup and topography of complex biological objects in their normal environment - opening the door for discovery of new biomarkers and improved gene studies, leading to better disease diagnosis and drug design on the cellular level. The research was presented in the July issue of IEE Electronics Letters. (GIT 7.24.06)
http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=1056

Nano World: Nano helps keep cells alive. Encasing living cells in networks of silica and fatty layers only nanometers or billionths of a meter in size could help keep them alive longer for use in novel chemical factories or sensors, experts tell UPI's Nano World. Scientists are tinkering with integrating cells into devices. However, the usual method of doing so involves encapsulating them in silica gel, but when these dry out, stresses are generated that kill cells. Materials scientist Jeff Brinker at Sandia National Laboratory and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and colleagues instead used live cells to direct the formation of scaffolds that would help keep them alive. (UPI 7.26.06) http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060721-090232-7030r 

Researchers at Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) today unveiled the "nanoegg," the latest addition to their family ultrasmall, light-focusing particles. A cousin of the versatile nanoshell, nanoeggs are asymmetric specks of matter whose striking optical properties can be harnessed for molecular imaging, medical diagnostics, chemical sensing and more. Nanoeggs are described in the July 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 
(Rice 7.20.06) http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=8658

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
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Email: nanogirl at halcyon.com
"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."

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